BBC on Living in: Cities known for art and culture

As the third most-visited European capital after London and Paris, Berlin is still a place where artists come to create their dreams.
The majority of residents in Berlin â€“ nearly 85% â€“ rent, and housing costs have risen more quickly than in other German cities. However, prices are still far lower than in other major Western European cities, including Hamburg, Brussels and Vienna. â€œThere are many advantages to renting,â€ said Alexander Korte, founder of BerlinInvestment.com, an estate agency specialising in foreign buyers. â€œThe laws are pro-renter and the landlords canâ€™t raise the rent just as they wish.â€ A 70sqm flat can rent for around 600 euros a month in neighbourhoods such as Kreuzberg or the gentrifying Friedrichschain, while Mitte is seeing rents reach 2,000 euros a month.
But buyers are also flocking to Berlin since apartments and houses are cheap for a major European capital. The property market has seen an increase in residential prices of more than 32% since 2007 and luxury developments and conversions are in demand. The rise in price is fuelled by Spanish, Italian Russian, British and French investors, as well as Germans, who consider Berlin a bargain and want a safe and inexpensive place for their euros. Currently, the average housing price in Berlin is 2,000 euros per square metre.